James McAvoy on British films: “We dumb our movies down because we want Americans to understand them”

“X-men: First Class” star James McAvoy insists the British film industry has chosen to”dumb down” its productions in order to appeal to the American audience and he believes this attitude will lead to a rocky future for the UK film industry.

“We dumb our movies down because we want Americans to understand them,” the actor says. “The Americans watch it and go, ‘this is a really unsophisticated dumbed down movie. Why would we want this? Why do we like this? We don’t’.” He adds, “It’s like we’re patronizing them and short changing ourselves.”

McAvoy went on to say Tom Hooper’s award winning “The King’s Speech“ is proof that intelligent British films do have a niche in the American market. “I think the whole thing is to keep trying to make the best possible movie that you can and hopefully the cream rises to the top.”